There are only a few TINY issues with that solution: it costs up to 14 times more to send fuel via trucks. And more importantly, it takes weeks longer to arrive at the stations.

The result? Severe gasoline shortages.

Across the entire country, including in the biggest cities of Mexico City and Guadalajara, more than 1,000 gas stations have been closed. Many of those still open have limited purchases of gas up to five gallons per person.

And the lines to get to them can reach up to a mile-long.

People have now started hoarding gasoline and re-selling it on the black market.

So much for cracking down on oil theft.

The result is millions of people with no access to gas. They cannot go to work, see their families, or go about their lives as they did just a few days ago.

It’s almost starting to look like Venezuela – the storybook example of what happens to a country gripped by corrupt socialism.

Around 20 years ago, Hugo Chavez came to power and enacted political reforms that granted him and his government enormous power. And he started massive, socialist programs in Venezuela that the country couldn’t afford.

And despite the country’s rich natural resource sector, it went broke.

Now Venezuela has hyperinflation (bringing the average, monthly wage to around $32/month). And people are running out of food, water, medicine and toilet paper. Venezuelans are fleeing the country en masse.

Things couldn’t get much worse in Venezuela. And the people, fed up with this long-running socialist disaster, just elected a new president, Juan Guaidó, who is now battling for power with Maduro. Buyt we’ll leave that story for another day.

The point is, you can look at Venezuela and say “what a bunch of idiots.” Or you can point to Mexico and say the same.

But let’s hold up a mirror to the situation in the US today…

The Treasury Department should soon release its annual financial report for the fiscal year ended September 30 (notice the government gives itself four months to prepare its statements – a full, three months longer than it gives private companies).

I already know what the report will show… that the government’s insolvency has only grown.

Social security is broke, pensions are broke, entitlement spending is eating up a larger and larger portion of tax revenue (while tax revenue is falling).